The Bachelor 2024 set itself up from the start to be an emotional rollercoaster. Opening the season with a clip of Joey crying at the final rose ceremony captivated Bachelor fans and kept them guessing about what could have happened on that beach. This clip was perfectly set up to parallel Joey’s scene on his season of The Bachelorette, where Charity decides he’s not the one for her. Fans all over the country wondered, will Joey get left behind again? Now that we’ve all had a week to digest the extremely emotional events of the Season 28 finale, let’s discuss.
Meeting the parents
The original group of 32 women had finally been narrowed down to two. After Rachel’s elimination in the previous episode, Daisy and Kelsey were faced with the full emotional weight of potentially getting engaged in mere days. In typical Bachelor fashion, the last episode consists of both women meeting Joey’s family and having one-on-one time with him.
Each meeting had key moments that gave hints into who may be more likely to be Joey’s final choice. His parents liked both girls, but they both had very different answers to a very important question. Joey’s mother asked them both a variation of, “If he were to propose right now, would you choose him?” Daisy answered sincerely with a yes, explaining that she does love Joey and would choose him without a doubt. Kelsey however, responded hesitantly with an “I think so.” The difference between the two responses let us know that Kelsey was still wary of getting hurt in this situation, while Daisy had no worries about committing to Joey entirely. This changed after their personal dates. When Daisy left her final one-on-one with Joey, she mentioned in her solo interview that Joey made a few comments like “Even if it’s not you I hope we can stay friends” and so on. It was these remarks that caused Daisy to doubt whether or not she was Joey’s final choice.
Unconventional events
The first shock of the episode comes when Daisy goes to visit Kelsey in her hotel room. The two formed a very close relationship over the course of the season, but the idea of the two finalists visiting each other to talk on the last day is relatively unheard of in Bachelor history. At this unexpected visit, Daisy asks how Kelsey’s one-on-one with Joey went and asks about their chemistry. When Kelsey explained she really did get that level of connection that Daisy was looking for, Daisy became convinced going into the ceremony that Joey would not pick her.
The choice
Ultimately Daisy’s intuition ends up being correct, and Joey chooses Kelsey. By the end of the episode, fans were on the edge of their seats, waiting to finally find out the cause of Joey’s tears at the final rose ceremony.
Typically, whoever gets out of the car first is the one who goes home. In a shocking turn of events, Daisy and Kelsey arrive at the final rose ceremony together. Kelsey stays and waits while Daisy goes to speak to Joey. Before he can say too much, Daisy begins to explain where she is emotionally. She explains the doubts she’s been having about his feelings for her and tearfully expresses that she knows it’s not going to be her, and because of that she has to do what’s best for herself and walk away now.
“I knew it was two people I really cared about, two people who really loved each other,”
Daisy revealed in her solo interview.
This absolutely gut-wrenching and emotionally mature soliloquy from Daisy is, as we find out, the cause of Joey’s tears as seen in the season preview. Joey cried because he, understandably, felt bad for breaking Daisy’s heart. Her graceful handling of the rejection combined with a very well-spoken solo interview after the fact, gained her a flood of empathy and admiration from viewers, applauding her for keeping her head high and walking away from the situation with elegance. When she arrived back at the car she gave Kelsey one final hug, and in a tear-jerking moment mentioned Kelsey’s mother, assuring her that she was looking down on this moment filled with pride.
My thoughts
In all honesty, I thought the final two would come down to Kelsey and Rachel. I was completely shocked, as were many other fans when Rachel was eliminated at the previous rose ceremony. It’s important to remember as a Bachelor fan that it isn’t about which contestant you like best, it’s about which contestant he likes best. One thing I noticed is that I could tell that Daisy and Kelsey both had equally strong feelings for Joey, putting him in a really tough spot. What made all this so interesting to watch is Joey is the first Bachelor contestant to have also been a finalist on The Bachelorette. Joey understanding what it feels like to be that second choice despite being totally in love, added a lot of layers and I’m sure a lot of stress to his decision making. I think the reason he teared up so much when Daisy left is because he genuinely knows how it feels to get so far and be let down. However, looking back it’s easy to see that his chemistry with Kelsey was more well-balanced, and the genuine connection between them came from both parties. When he was with Daisy, I could tell she was in love with him and that distracted me from considering how connected he felt to her.
This season of The Bachelor was a unique one, with drama between the girls and plenty of twists and turns that the Bachelor Nation was completely invested in. Occasionally in past seasons, people have disagreed and griped about the final rose selection, but this year people seem to be overall happy. Whether this is owed to Daisy handling the situation as well as she did, or the audience’s love for Kelsey, fans were more than enthusiastic to congratulate the happy couple!